~ Not So Regular Views – From a Regular Guy!

Monthly Archives: March 2013

With all the hoopla surrounding the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic hearing of two cases this month, it has become quite apparent that the lines for battle have been drawn. The court is hearing both the DOMA arguments (Defense of Marriage Act), which restricts federal marriage benefits and required inter-state marriage recognition to only opposite-sexmarriages in the United States. The law passed both houses of Congress by large majorities and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on September 21, 1996.

The highest court in the land is also going to weigh in on California’s controversial (to some, at least), Proposition 8, which was passed by California voters in November 2008, and became an amendment to the state’s constitution. In essence, the Proposition 8 measure added a new provision, Section 7.5 of the Declaration of Rights, to the California Constitution, which provides that “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”

What is of note in this “debate” is that I have seen only positive coverage of same-sex marriages in almost all media outlets – specifically, ABC, CBS, and NBC – along with CNN. Now, being a “regular guy” or, just an average “Joe,” I’ve walked around streets and neighborhoods and spoken with people in a passing manner. There is a LOT of opposition to same-sex marriage, and there is also a LOT of support for it. Likewise, DOMA has a similar number of people both for and against it.

The statistics don’t lie: if you are younger than age 40, you are 75% more likely to be opposed to both DOMA and California’s Proposition 8. If, however, you are 40+ (near, there, or older), you are mostly in favor of DOMA and Proposition 8. So, what gives? The only correlation I can see with this is the fact that people who went to public school back when public schools actually taught reading, writing, and math, were educated on social issues at home by responsible parents, and had little or NO government input in their early development. Those individuals who were educated in the last 30 years or so — the so-called “millennials,” have been educated (some might say “indoctrinated”) in a public school system that favors social issues vs. straight (no pun intended) academia.

Just to put things into perspective, the younger folks have been brought up to feel passionate about equality in this country. They’ve also been raised up and educated to believe passionately in our environment, kindness to animals, and that everything and everyone in our planet deserves respect and to be treated well — except people who disagree.

Tolerance is highly advocated in this generations cultural makeup. What this means is that even if you don’t like it or agree with it, you MUST go along with it, otherwise, you risk being labeled “intolerant” – just about the only thing that the “tolerance” movement will NOT tolerate.

The real gist of the matter, however, isn’t about Biblical realities, God, procreation, or equality. Well, actually, there is an element of equality that the spotlight is being shone upon – much to the chagrin of the media – and that’s the ECONOMIC equality that homosexual couples want. I’ve read all of the stories in the newspapers and online about how same-sex couples that were “married” in one state, couldn’t receive benefits of a married couple at the Federal level when of of the “spouses” passed away. While this is a sad state of affairs, it goes to the crux of the matter, doesn’t it?

Civil unions were established for homosexual couples, so they’d be able to receive benefits, however, with DOMA in place, they’re unable to receive those Federal benefits that only opposite-sex marriages can receive. Now, let’s not forget about the millions of men and women who live together that also don’t receive any death benefits when a partner dies. Are they being singled out simply because they chose not to marry according to the definition of the law?

Folks, what we have here is a quagmire of illusions thrust upon our country by those who would blatantly obfuscate the true objective, and who have succinctly, effectively, and systematically perverted our nation’s values over the course of the last 30-40 years by using our own educational system, and news/media outlets to “change the perception” of our young generation. If this much effort had been placed into actually EDUCATING our children instead of indoctrinating them, the USA would be # 1 in the world academically instead of 17th.

The bottom line is that these issues have been turned into socio-economical issues at best, and at it’s worst, a demonizing and media flogging of those who look at these from a religious and humanities standpoint. It seems to all come down to money at this point, but I have to believe there is something deeper. Is it love? Well, even “married” homosexuals have been divorcing at a similar rate as heterosexual couples – gives a new twist on the phrase, “Gay Divorcee.”

Life isn’t perfect. I don’t expect it ever was and ever will be – so long as we have people in the world who are NEVER fully happy with their circumstances, and especially in today’s world where “everything” is usually “someone else’s” fault, we will never have a perfect world. What I’d really like to see is a REAL debate on the issue. From what I can tell, the reports, and TV and newspaper coverage tend to skew to the favor of same-sex couples, rather than remaining impartial – this is NOT how the media should work.

So, I have to ask, with so many of the people that I’ve met who are opposed to same-sex marriage, why don’t they get to have a voice in the debate? Who appointed Diane Sawyer, or George Stephanopoulos – or anyone else, for that matter, in the mainstream media as MY REPRESENTATIVE?! These people do NOT speak for me and countless others who have very real and distinctly different opinions about these issues. I suppose that since the “older” demographic isn’t whom they’re catering to, they can choose to ignore that group.

They do so at their peril, for you see, Wir schweigen nicht (“We will not be silent,” the slogan of the White Rose, the subversive German antifascist movement.)